Push pins, as the expression is used here, are pins which are pushed through a material or materials requiring support, then into a supporting material. Push pins were first patented in the late 19th Century. This type of push pin is comprised, commonly, of two components: a handle and a pin, which are intended to remain together as a unit. The push pins are typically used to support materials in temporary or changeable circumstances and they are pushed in (driven) by human force and pulled out (removed) by human force. The devices that are known by, and described by, the expression “push pin,” typically are operated in the push and pull modes. They might be more properly identified as push-pull pins, but the expression push-pin is commonly used in descriptions of prior art and in common practice by people who use such devices. A typical use of push pins would be to support drawings on a vertical or sloped bulletin board or tack board, for example.
As can be seen in the prior art referenced in this application, the handles on available push pins offer small areas of purchase to grasp between thumb and finger, or between two fingers, in order to drive the push pin into supporting material. With prior art, when driving a push pin into supporting material, the procedure often is difficult because the thumb and finger contact surfaces of the pin handles lack sufficient surface area, the shape of the handle is difficult to grasp securely, or the shape of the handle does not naturally direct efficient force toward the supporting material. A person intending to drive in a push pin, with stability, often has to pinch, or squeeze, the handle so firmly, parallel to the surface of the supporting material rather than perpendicular (the drive in direction), that limited energy is available to push the pin into the supporting material. Due to limited contact area in many prior art devices, thumb and finger, or fingers, often slide off the push pin handle before the pin is properly embedded in the supporting material. Due to prior art shape—geometry—there is often limited pushing surface for driving the push pin efficiently into supporting material. Due to prior art geometry, in order to grasp and drive in the push pin, many people must use more than two digits.
In prior art, even less attention has been paid to the process of pulling the pin out of the supporting material, axially opposite the pushing direction. The contact area is so small and the handle shape is so difficult to grasp that, again, an inefficient pinching energy is required and often the thumb and finger slide off the pin handle before the pin has been removed from the supporting material.
The inventor in this patent application has used common, prior art push pins for several years and it is because of his annoyance and frustration in using this prior art that he created the present invention.